Below are words and pictures from Eileen Wells, a Solutions Architect and team lead for the Trace3 Denver Flood Volunteer Team. The team was made up of Trace3 Employees and Trace3 customers. They joined a clean-up effort lead by a group called Mudslingers

We are so proud of the Colorado community at large and how they united in a time of need. Non-profit organizations are sprouting up like crazy to help with the CO Flood efforts. Ben Myren, Trace3 Denver lead volunteer, called 3 – 5 nonprofit organizations asking how Trace3 engineers can help with the CO flood relief efforts.

These nonprofit organizations live and die off donations and volunteers. Trace3 is asking the tech community for more donations and would love to see more volunteering. We’d love to see monetary and tech asset donations go to ITDRC and/or DTL. Trace3 Denver is also encouraging Trace3 to have customer team building events with the Mudslingers. The time we got to spend yesterday volunteering for Mudslingers with Oppenheimer’s crew and Trace3 Denver’s crew was priceless. Colorado communities will need our financial, physical and engineering help for the unforeseeable future.

If you are interested in volunteering, donating or organizing a customer volunteer event please contact Ben Myren.

Yesterday Trace3 Denver and 8 customers from Oppenheimer Funds volunteered at Donate Boulder. Donate Boulder | Boulder Mud Slingers is based out of Boulder, Colorado. They sprung up out of the mud from the recent flood that has impacted a great deal of our beloved Colorado. They are a grassroots, community-driven effort that connects people who need help with those who want to give it.
If you’re looking to donate goods such as bedding, furniture, clothing, etc. please email Lynne Fetterman at lynne@4milestore.org
There are a LOT of spokes running this wheel, but here are the main folks that you can get in touch with if needed. General inquiries please email us at bouldermudslingers@gmail.com

Information Technology Disaster Resource Center, ITDRC, is a nationwide 501(c)(3) nonprofit comprised of technology professionals from all disciplines. Our mission is to unify and harness the philanthropic resources of the technology community to help communities in disaster.
Community technology needs will change as the disaster lifecycle progresses, but the tasks will remain similar to our daily operations (only without the cable maintenance!) During the response phase, we typically facilitate requests for connectivity and surge assets for community relief efforts such as volunteer and donation centers, temporary call centers, etc. This will change as organizations begin recovery and/or move to temporary locations. Since the majority of small businesses and community organizations affected by this disaster likely do not have flood insurance, the need for charitable assistance will be great in the coming weeks and months.

Disaster Tech Lab(DTL):
Disaster Tech Lab is a non-profit based in Ireland. We’re currently in the process of setting up a non-profit in the US in order to get 502(c)3 status.
Or primary goal is to provide connectivity to communities affected by disasters as well as the organizations responding to these disasters. We connect communities so that they can do practical things such as register with FEMA, file insurance claims but also so that they can stay in touch with friends & family in a world that’s used to being “always on”. By providing connectivity to responding organizations we enable them to do their work more efficiently and to coordinate with other organizations more effectively. DTL also built temporary internet cafes in affected areas providing both Internet access as well as laptops, tablets & printers for people to use. Their service is build around a core wifi network backhauled mostly over satellite (that’s where we work with ITDRC a lot) but sometimes also over 4G or whatever else is available.
DTL works a lot in the US ( deployed after Sandy, the Moore OK tornadoes and now in Colorado) but operate across the world with past work in Haiti and Europe. They work exclusively with unpaid volunteers.
Between deployments we work on developing technology, both hard- and soft-ware for use in disaster response.
Our needs list is really rather short:– volunteers with (wireless) network experience. – laptops, tablets, and the occasional printer. – donations to cover our overheads.
Disaster Tech Lab has also started work on a communications trailer for this and future disasters.
This 55ft trailer is being built with the specific purpose to be deployed into a community affected by disaster such as Lyons or Jamestown to offer wide range of connectivity to the local population.
It’s designed as a self-contained vehicle with a conference room, 6 workstations, shower & toilet facilities, integral diesel generator and solar power etc.
The technical components will include an internal wired network with 6 desktops, server(s), NAS device(s), Asterisks based PBX, WLAN, VoIP phones, Vsat backhaul, VHF/UHF & HAM radio as well as a full set of equipment to deploy a temporary internet cafe with WiFi access, laptops and tablets.
The whole project will represent an investment of nearly $200,000.
While DTL has a lot of the equipment already. They are looking for donations of wired network components (switches & routers) as well as servers & (NAS) storage. Also volunteers to assist in installing the equipment in this vehicle when the time arises would also be welcome.
DTL is willing to display a sponsors logo in a prominent position on the side(s) of this vehicle in exchange for their support.

Partner/Customer donations:
– Webroot: Mike Trammell from Webroot donated endless amounts of cable to DTL and ITDRC. They also donated about 20 switches and a spool of cable.
– F5: donating car cell phone charges
– Lyon’s Communication: ISP in Lyons allowing DTL to use their connectivity as a backhaul for wifi cafes
– Dish networks: sets up satellite backhauls free to the town to use until communications can be restored to the community.
– Aruba Networks: donates endless amount of wireless gear to install outdoor and indoor wireless communications for the FEMA disaster recovery centers so survivors can register on the FEMA site for help and so they can connect with friends and family.
– Goal Zero: donates solar powered batteries used to power the satellites, wifi, laptops, etc until power is restored in the communities.